


Plan of Action

by liar_iago



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-23
Updated: 2015-03-23
Packaged: 2018-03-19 08:10:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3602769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liar_iago/pseuds/liar_iago
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everyone knows that actions speak louder than words. On the other hand, most things are easier said than done. It's a dilemma Tadashi has never quite been able to escape, and it makes itself especially apparent starting from the day Hinata confesses his affections for him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Plan of Action

**Author's Note:**

> have another little drab!! it probably doesn't actually qualify as a drabble because i have a habit of dragging stories on way longer than they really need to be but such is the life!! i really love yamahina (like reallyreallyreallyreally) and it's a real shame that i haven't published something for them until now. anyway, hope ya like it! 
> 
> enjoy!

On the evening of the day Kageyama and Hinata become official members of the Karasuno volleyball team, Tsukishima goes over to Tadashi’s house to play video games.

“What did you think of them?” says Tadashi as he watches Tsukishima channel his not-so-subtle frustration into a jab at the power button on Tadashi’s PlayStation.

“What do you want me to say?” replies Tsukishima. “The King was pretty much what I expected him to be--overbearing and utterly self-centered.”

“What about the other one?” says Tadashi. “The Hinata kid.”

Tsukishima shrugs, eyes on the screen. “He had good reflexes but sucked pretty much the entire time...and he was obnoxious. Why? What did you think of him?”

“I don’t know. He seemed…”

_Inspired. Powerful. Limitless._

_Everything I’m not._

Tadashi picks up the second controller. “He’s all right.”

“Five hundred yen says he quits by the end of the week,” says Tsukishima as he starts the game.

Tadashi laughs, but not because he thinks Tsukishima is right.

-:-

Months pass, and Hinata only seems to get better and better at rendering them speechless at every turn. Tadashi comes to find he has long since stopped trying to describe Hinata with words.

Hinata is a series of images.

He is a summer day on the beach, bright and restless and loud. He is a steam engine, ruthlessly powerful and always charging ever forward.

He is asking Tadashi out on a date.

“Wait, what?”

Hinata’s smile falters, and Tadashi notices him fidgeting with the hem of his shirt.

“It doesn’t have to be like, um, a real date or anything. I mean--we could just hang out, but I just…” Hinata looks away and rubs the back of his neck. “I just wanted to let you know that I really l-like you, and uh, yeah…”

Tadashi blinks and tries to gather his thoughts into a coherent reply. “Hinata--”

Hinata throws up his hands before Tadashi can continue. “You don’t have to answer me right away! I totally understand.”

“Oh, but I--”

“I’ll see you around, Yamaguchi!”

Hinata takes off, leaving Tadashi to ponder what he might have said if he’d been given the chance.

-:-

“You’re not actually going to go out with him, are you?” is Tsukishima’s first reaction to the news.

Tadashi sighs and drops bonelessly onto Tsukishima’s bed. It is an extremely uncomfortable bed, and Tadashi has no idea how Tsukishima lies down on it every night with full confidence that he will fall asleep.

“I might,” says Tadashi.

“Do you even like him?” says Tsukishima.

“That’s a good question,” admits Tadashi, and he conducts a mental review of the facts.

He likes Hinata’s spirit. He likes his endless determination and courage. He likes his smile.

“I like a lot of things _about_ him,” Tadashi concludes aloud. “That means something, right?”

“You’d probably know better if you spent more time acting on your feelings than you did thinking about them,” says Tsukishima.

Tadashi pauses. “That was incredibly cheesy and I wish I had recorded it.”

“Too bad, because I’m never saying it again.”

“So maybe I should go out with him after all,” says Tadashi.

Tsukishima shrugs. “Up to you. I don’t want any part in this.”

“Well, darn. Just what am I going to do if I don’t have you to make all my decisions for me?” says Tadashi, and after that he is too busy texting Hinata to properly suffer the effects of Tsukishima’s sour comeback.

-:-

Hinata is ecstatic to see him waiting outside the cafe.

“You came!”

Tadashi raises his eyebrows. “I said I would.”

“Well, yeah, but...nevermind,” mumbles HInata, pink dusting his cheeks as he rocks back on his heels. He is wearing a tee splashed in various pastel colors, coupled with a pair of white cargo shorts. It’s not a show-stopping outfit, but getting to see Hinata in something other than his practice clothes and school uniform is refreshing.

Tadashi smiles. “You look nice,” he says, and he means it.

“Oh!” says Hinata, and Tadashi has never seen him so flustered. “I-I mean, thanks. You look good, too.”

Tadashi put a lot more effort into picking out his light blue button-down and black jeans than he would willingly admit, and he’s a bit surprised at how pleased he is to hear Hinata compliment him.

“Want to head inside?” he says, gesturing towards the cafe.

Hinata nods, eyes lighting up at the prospect of food, and they take a small table in the corner near the display case after placing their orders.

Hinata starts fidgeting right away, running his hand through his perpetually messy hair, picking at his fingernails, and looking anywhere but at Tadashi.

Tadashi can’t help but find it fascinating that someone as outspoken and boisterous as Hinata seems to be at a loss for words. He tries to think of something to say--something that will interest Hinata and get him talking, because the silence is clearly making him uncomfortable.

“So how’s that new maneuver with Kageyama going?” he says.

Hinata beams, all signs of anxiety disappearing almost instantly. “Oh, man, you should see it! I mean, it’s not exactly ready yet, but yesterday after practice we did some tosses before we closed up and I totally _nailed_ the last one!”

“You’ve been practicing cut shots, right?” says Tadashi.

“Yeah!” Hinata grins like it’s the greatest thing in the world that Tadashi knows this, and Tadashi wonders what it would be like to see a smile like that first thing in the morning.

But then Hinata falls silent again and goes back to avoiding eye contact, and Tadashi isn’t exactly put off, but he’s quite sure he’s never seen Hinata act so awkward.

“Hinata,” he says. “Why did you ask me out?”

Predictably, Hinata’s face flushes red as a stoplight. He looks down, and his expression twists into a grimace.

“Sorry,” he says. “I know I’m being really weird right now.”

Tadashi smiles. “Just a little.”

“I just--I don’t know,” says HInata, but then he frowns and shakes his head. “I mean, I do know that I like you and I want to go out with you, but I don’t know what to do and how to...be.”

Tadashi can’t help but laugh. “Couldn’t you just be your usual self?”

“But that’s how I act with friends,” says Hinata. “It’s supposed to be different on dates and stuff.”

“Says who? Just act however feels right to you, Hinata,” says Tadashi.

Hinata bites his lip, then runs his tongue over it nervously. “You won’t think it’s weird?”

Tadashi gives him the most encouraging smile he can muster while secretly wishing he could see Hinata do that again, and he wordlessly holds out his hand.

Hinata lays his hand in Tadashi’s, then looks up as if to confirm that he’s done it right.

Hinata’s hand is cold and more than a little sweaty, but the way he smiles when Tadashi squeezes his fingers lightly makes up for it entirely, and then some.

“Now it’s not so weird, right?” says Tadashi, and Hinata nods happily. "We can go out and still be friends, you know." 

“Man, I feel so dumb for getting so worked up about this,” says Hinata, and Tadashi is relieved to see his shoulders loosen. “I just thought that if we started dating it would mean we couldn’t really act like friends anymore.”

“What made you think the two were mutually exclusive?”

“I don’t know,” says Hinata. “TV?”

“And here I thought you’d be too busy playing volleyball to watch television,” says Tadashi.

“I am!” says Hinata. “Except on Friday nights when Mom and Natsu watch their dramas.”

Tadashi laughs. “I get the feeling life isn’t quite like prime time dramas. Besides, aren’t you always playing by your own rules anyway?”

Hinata blushes. “It’s not like I purposely do that.”

Tadashi squeezes Hinata’s hand again, and Hinata squeezes back gently. It’s a feeling Tadashi could definitely get used to.

Hinata sways a little in his seat, and Tadashi realizes when he hears a scuffing sound against the floor that he’s swinging his legs. “Yamaguchi...you do like me, right?”

_That’s what I’ve been trying to work out_ , Tadashi wants to say.  

“Would I be here otherwise?” he says instead. He doesn’t bother trying to figure out whether he’s reasoning with Hinata or with himself.  

“Well, I mean...I don’t want you to feel pressured to go out with me just because I asked you to.”

Tadashi raises an eyebrow. “Do I really seem like that much of a pushover to you?”

“That’s not what I meant,” says Hinata quickly. “I just...ugh, sorry.”

Tadashi watches Hinata’s face fall again, and his heart sinks. He wishes he could find a way to explain what's going on in his mind to Hinata, but he can’t even understand it himself.

He feels stupid, sitting here like this with nothing to say while Hinata looks like he’s about to cry. He can imagine Tsukishima scoffing at him in that quiet, mean way of his, and resists the urge to roll his eyes. He can’t wait to see how utterly unimpressed Tsukishima is going to be when he learns that the date was a total disaster, but takes solace in the fact that Tsukishima probably wouldn’t have done any better.

_Stop thinking about your feelings and just act on them_ , Tsukishima told Tadashi the other day, but it’s far easier said than done.

If it’s a matter of instinct, Tadashi’s is screaming at him to get up, pack his things, and flee the country (he’s always been a bit of a coward at heart, but isn’t everyone?), and the only thing keeping him in his seat is the voice in the back of his mind insisting that he still has time to find some way to _fix this_.

“Uh,” says Hinata, pulling his hand away from Tadashi’s and rising from his seat. “The food’s been a while. I think I’ll go and see…”

Tadashi tries not to panic, but does anyway. “Hold on,” he says, getting to his feet as well and standing in front of Hinata. “Hinata, I…”

_I like you. Most likely. Probably. I’m not an expert with statistics, but there’s a good chance. I mean, theoretically, if I were to compare the list of things I like about you with the list of things I don’t like about you, the results would indicate--_

“I’m going to kiss you.”

Tadashi doesn’t have the guts to wait to see his reaction and just leans forward to press his lips lightly to Hinata’s.

The smell of coconut fills Tadashi’s nose, and he recognizes it as a brand of shampoo he’s used once or twice. The oily smear of Hinata’s chapstick is strange against his lips, but he finds that it isn’t entirely unpleasant, and he’s struck with the bizarre urge to find out what flavor it is.

There is no spark. When he pulls away, he finds that there has been no significant change in the brightness of the world around him, and when he licks his lips he discovers that Hinata’s chapstick is just regular, vastly unpleasant-tasting Vaseline.

And yet he can feel his heart hammering against his ribcage hard enough that Hinata would probably hear it in his voice if he tried to speak, and his face is so warm he almost wishes he had a mirror to check that it isn’t actually on fire right now. 

Hinata stares up at him, eyes so wide Tadashi can’t tell if the dazed smile on his face is one of joy or confusion. Then, before Tadashi can attempt to explain himself, Hinata throws his arms around his waist and hugs him so tight his head spins as his breath leaves him at all once.

“I’m so happy I could die right now,” Hinata says softly into his shoulder, and it blows Tadashi away, how Hinata always seems to know what exactly he wants to say and when to say it.

Tadashi himself still doesn’t know what to say, but he knows that being close to Hinata like this, listening to him breathe next to his ear and feeling his cheek against his shoulder, is _right_. It’s not the clear-cut answer he’s been searching for, but it’s a start and that’s reason enough for him to believe it could become something great for both of them.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you guys enjoyed this! thanks so much for reading <3


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